Prosecution rests in trial of ex-deputy charged with arranging to meet teen

Attorney Benjaman Adams (left) and defendant Earl William Klapperich watch as a witness testifies in Klapperich's trial today in Butte County Superior Court in Oroville. Klapperich is charged with allegedly arranging to meet a minor for a sex act.

OROVILLE — The prosecution rested today in the trial of a former Butte County sheriff's deputy charged with arranging to meet a minor for a sex act.

The Butte County Superior Court jury heard the final hour of defendant Earl William Klapperich's three-hour interview with Butte County district attorney's investigators recorded after his arrest on May 11, 2012.

Klapperich, 28, continued to assert he intended only to counsel the 14-year-old girl he was exchanging text messages with.

Klapperich told Lt. Juan Diaz and investigator Jason Barkley he never had any sexual intentions with the girl, but recognized they doubted his story.

Barkley repeatedly referred to several text messages from the defendant, asking for more explicit photos or referring to the girl as "hot and naughty." Klapperich couldn't build rapport by asking for nude photos, he said.

"God, it looks bad," Klapperich responded. "It really does and it wasn't my intention for it to be that way."

The "girl" in the text messages was actually Diaz impersonating a 14-year-old Klapperich met during an April 2012 call. There had been a complaint about how Klapperich handled the situation with two girls, 14- and 16-years-old, reported as runaways.

Klapperich's superior at the time, Sgt. Greg Reeves, testified about the earlier incident and how the defendant informed him about returning to the Berry Creek cabin a second time to check on the girls.

Reeves said he didn't find the conduct to be suspicious. He also investigated the subsequent complaint and didn't find it had merit.

When defense attorney Benjaman Adams cross-examined Barkley and Diaz, he questioned their investigatory practices, including sending close-up photos from Playboy magazine to fulfill Klapperich's request for pictures. Diaz acknowledged he didn't try to directly match the picture with the body type of the girl.

Adams also asked why Diaz didn't explicitly state the girl's age when Klapperich asked. The attorney noted it is a common practice during stings recorded for television, like "To Catch a Predator."

Diaz said the deputy knew how old the girl was, given the earlier contact. The deputy also texted that the girl was very young at one point.

"In my eyes, he knew exactly who he was dealing with," Diaz said.

The lieutenant acknowledged he encouraged Klapperich at some points, but also tried to discourage him and give the deputy opportunities to stop the contact.

Diaz conceded Klapperich never said he was going to have sex with the girl, but said there were other indications, including what was on the deputy's iPhone.

Barkley testified the data from Klapperich's phone was downloaded and analyzed. The phone contained 29,306 images, although not all were photos.

Two photos — allegedly featuring sexual poses of the defendant's former girlfriend when she was underage — were associated with a third-party software program. In Apple's App Store, developer collect3 described its photo vault program as a way to securely hide photos and was the best-selling privacy app.

After the jury left for the day, Adams asked Judge James Reilley to strike two of the charges against -Klapperich. He argued the charge to arrange the meeting should be dropped because the District Attorney's Office entrapped Klapperich, in part by using an unusually attractive lure in the form of an adult model.

Adams also said the prosecution didn't prove the defendant had a sexual intent and actually arranged the meeting.

Deputy district attorney Stacy Edwards argued the text messages showed Klapperich participated in the planning the meeting in Chico that led to his arrest. Regarding sexual intent, the prosecutor indicated Klapperich's prior relationship, text comments and masturbating prior to the meeting.

Regarding entrapment, Edwards said it couldn't be determined if the female in the photos was a model or 14-year-old. She also said Klapperich was a trained officer who willingly participated in the conversation with someone he acknowledged was young.

Judge Reilley denied the motion to dismiss the arranging a meeting count. He also denied a defense request to dismiss a felony count of possessing media depicting sexual conduct of a minor.

Adams had argued the photos didn't explicitly show sexual conduct and the prosecution didn't prove Klapperich had control or possession over the images on his phone.